by R A Wallace
“At least we know your mother’s friend isn’t involved,” Lenora said.
“Yeah, but they weren’t accommodating enough to give us the name of the new person in charge,” Zach said.
“I have some ideas about that,” Callie said with a look at Greyson.
He nodded his head. “No doubt.”
Callie turned to Lenora and Zach. “We need to get a copy of that to the police.”
They looked at each other and then at Greyson. He expelled a breath.
“Yes, she’s right. Just because they aren’t sharing with us doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pass intelligence back to them.” He gave Callie a speculative look. “Besides, she actually has friends on the police force.”
“Unfortunately, none of them are currently working Sheree’s case,” Callie said.
Chapter Twenty
The team gathered together in the office on Friday morning to go over everything that they had learned. It was the first day of the auction. Although they didn’t yet have all of the facts they needed, they tried to plan for as many contingencies as possible.
“I don’t need to remind you to stay focused,” Greyson said as he looked around the group. “If anything is going to happen, it will be today or tomorrow. We need all eyes on the cars and the players that we know are involved.”
“There may be some that we don’t know about yet,” Callie reminded everyone. “It wouldn’t surprise me if there isn’t another key player hiding in the wings.”
Greyson swiveled around in his chair to face her. “Any ideas who that might be?”
Callie considered it. “No.” She glanced back at the monitors and waved her hand vaguely toward them. “But it’s very possible that some of the new arrivals could also be aware of the item going up for sale. There are some who didn’t arrive until this morning.”
“We need to monitor all of the potential buyers,” Greyson agreed. “We’ve been looking into all of their backgrounds during the week. Lenora has worked up an extensive list including the buyers that have already arrived and those who may.”
“It’s also possible that Philip might know something,” Callie said slowly as she thought it through. “Even if he isn’t aware of it.”
“Good point.” Greyson stood and motioned toward one of the monitors. “Maybe we should go ask him.”
Callie looked up and saw Philip speaking with her mother. She stood quickly to follow Greyson.
Greyson opened the door of the office and let Callie pass through first. “You have your assignments,” he said to the group before closing the door.
The drive to the building where her mother had been spending time took longer than usual.
“I can tell it’s Friday. There are a lot more people here today,” she said.
“Tomorrow is going to be a madhouse,” he agreed as he shut off the oversized ATV and slid out.
“Darlings! Have you two eaten?” Margaret said loudly as she greeted them.
There was a lot of excitement in the room with a large influx of new arrivals. Many of the auction attendees had not been in town all week and had just arrived. The conversations in the room were loud and boisterous.
Callie nodded to indicate they had eaten. Greyson snagged a muffin then turned to Philip.
“Mind if we speak to you for a few moments?” Greyson asked the older man as he unwrapped his muffin.
Callie noticed that Philip looked much more reserved than he usually did. Philip nodded his agreement.
Greyson surveyed the room as another large group of people entered and was greeted enthusiastically by Margaret and others. Greyson motioned for Philip to follow him out into the hallway that connected the building to the hangar. The muffin was gone in a few bites as they walked. He tossed the wrapper into a trash can as they reached the hangar.
The cars slated for the auction had been removed from the hangar. In their place, long rows of bleachers had been set up facing a stage. There was also a lot of space for people to stand behind the bleachers. In between the bleachers and the stage was the area where the cars would be paraded during the auction. Off to one side of the stage was a long table with a lot of computers.
Although several people were already taking advantage of the seating, Greyson was able to find a space to stand that didn’t have anyone else close by.
“I’m sure the police have been asking you a lot of questions,” Greyson said to Philip.
“That’s an understatement,” Philip agreed with a wry smile that quickly disappeared.
“Have they been sharing any information?” Greyson asked.
Philip looked confused. “Such as?”
Callie explained what they had learned about Sheree. She watched several emotions cross Philip’s face as she spoke.
“I’m so sorry,” Callie said quietly when she finished. She reached out and placed her hand on his arm.
Philip shook his head and touched her hand briefly before dropping his hand back to his side.
“It isn’t your fault. I knew practically from the moment I said ‘I do’ that I shouldn’t have.” Philip suddenly looked older. “There’s nothing worse than an old fool.”
“I have some difficult questions to ask you,” Callie said gently.
Philip roused himself from his private thoughts and nodded.
“I understand that you used to be in a relationship with Tessa. Is that true?” Callie asked.
Philip huffed out a laugh.
“Another mistake.” He shook his head. “I’m just full of them, aren’t I?”
Callie and Greyson shared a look.
“Do you think it’s possible that Tessa killed your wife because she wants you back?” Greyson asked.
Philip made a face as he considered it. Finally, he shrugged.
“I can’t imagine her wanting an old man like me back. But I agree it’s possible she might want my money, my business, or both.” Philip grimaced. “I guess anything is possible.”
“What I don’t understand is why you hired her as your secretary after you married,” Greyson said. “Did your wife know about your past history with Tessa?”
Philip looked surprised. “Oh, yes. I told her about Tessa before we married.”
“She didn’t mind having Tessa as your shared secretary?” Callie asked.
Philip still looked confused.
“I didn’t hire Tessa,” he said. “Sheree did.”
They asked him a few more questions before watching him walk slowly back toward the area where Margaret was. It seemed to Callie that his posture was more bent, as though he carried a heavy weight on his shoulders.
Several people wearing tee shirts with the same logo entered the hangar and began working with the video equipment that was trained on the stage area. The hangar had been filling up as they’d spoken to Philip. Some of the crew performed a sound check.
“The auction is going to begin soon,” Greyson said as he moved to block someone from backing up and bumping into Callie. He grabbed her hand and began leading her out.
“We still have no idea what might be smuggled in the cars.” Callie leaned into him and spoke quietly as they wove their way out of the hangar. “We don’t even know how many cars might have something hidden in them.”
They reached the entrance to the hangar and stepped out. Greyson slid his sunglasses on as they walked around the building.
“We know that no one has had a chance to physically place anything in the cars since they’ve arrived here for the auction,” he said. “In addition to the regular security staff monitoring access to them, our team has had them under constant video surveillance the entire time they’ve been on the property.”
“So, we’re going to… what?” Callie asked. “Wait until one or more bids seems out of place during the auction? Over the limit you would expect for a car to sell at?”
Greyson made a noise of frustration as he slid into the ATV.
“I’ve had the dogs check each of the cars multiple times. N
o one has had the access to hide anything inside the cars.” He began driving back to their office. “Do you have any other ideas?”
“No.” Callie ran several scenarios through her head as they slowly drove through the crowd. As she exited the ATV at the other end, she realized that she was every bit as frustrated as Greyson sounded.
Lenora and Zach were in the office monitoring all of the cameras. Callie could see that they had clear views at each of the auction sites. Although the activity was less at the smaller satellite locations, Callie immediately understood the rationale for having them.
The main auction area in the hangar was filled to capacity. The interest in the auction was so high, even the smaller satellite locations were full. Each of the locations had monitors so that spectators could keep track of what was going on at all of the other sites. Overall, the multiple locations allowed for more participation and a steady stream of activity to keep everyone’s attention.
Callie accepted the bottle of water that Greyson handed to her and settled in her seat to watch the monitors. It was going to be a long day.
Chapter Twenty-One
Callie stood and stretched. She wasn’t really designed to sit for long periods of time. It was one of the few drawbacks of being a private investigator. Sometimes the job simply called for it. She realized she was getting hungry. They’d been watching the car auction for hours. Lunch had been a long time ago. She watched as another car was pushed into place.
“Why do they do that?” she asked.
Greyson was staring at the monitors. “Do what?”
“Push some of the cars into place. Some are driven, some are pushed. Why?” she asked.
Greyson pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes and rubbed. Callie considered doing the same thing. She’d been staring at the monitors for so long, her eyes felt like they had sand in them.
“That’s more complicated than it seems. Some of them are actually designed to be concept cars. They aren’t ready for prime time,” he said as he dropped his hands. “In other cases, they’re just trying to let you know that the car does, indeed, run. At these kinds of prices, that may or may not be a factor.”
She watched as another car sold for an unbelievably high price. She could understand the buyer wanting to know it ran before spending that kind of money.
“Sometimes they won’t start at the last minute for whatever reason. It happens more often than the sellers would like it to. There’s also the case where the seller doesn’t want to take the chance of anything going wrong by starting it.”
Callie watched the auction staff working the computers next to the stage. She knew that they were monitoring the online bids in real time. There were other auction staff members working the crowds, trying to get the bids up. Everyone involved in the auction was wearing wireless headsets so they could work effortlessly as a team, even with all that chaos.
“Like that one?” she asked. The video feed had a small picture-in-picture feature that showed the next car being queued up for the auction block. Someone was sitting inside trying to start the engine. Several other people were examining the engine with the hood propped open.
Greyson frowned as he looked at the small video in the corner of the of screen. He glanced back at Zach and Lenora.
“Have you guys been noticing that a lot?” he asked.
Callie glanced at the other two then focused on Greyson.
“Notice what?” she asked.
“It’s not unusual for a car to not start when you bring it to auction,” he said. “But I think it’s been happening a lot today. Is it my imagination?”
“I noticed it too,” Lenora said.
Zach nodded agreement. “I was going to ask you about it.”
Greyson glanced at the time.
“There’s only a couple more hours of the auction today.” He pointed at Lenora. “I want you to go back over the video of everything we’ve watched today and try to get a count of how often that’s been happening.”
Lenora nodded and began pulling up video on her computer.
Greyson pointed at Zach. “I want you to keep track of how often it happens from this point on.”
Callie turned toward him. “What about us? Maybe we should go to one of the hangars? We’d be closer to the action.”
“Have you ever been to an auction like this?” he asked with a wry smile.
She shook her head.
He pointed to one of the monitors showing the crowd of people in the main hangar. “Watch them as the next car is sold.”
Callie did as she was told. The car sold quickly.
“Could you tell who had the winning bid?” he asked.
Callie thought back. She’d been trying to watch everyone on the monitor. Although it showed a large number of people, it didn’t cover everyone on the audience. She assumed the winner hadn’t been within camera range and was sitting on the other side of the bleachers.
Then she saw someone stand up and move toward the people that handled the sale after it was over. She realized that she’d never seen them make a bid, even though she was watching them.
“See what I mean? Just scratching your nose could cost you six figures,” he grinned.
“Not on my list of things to do today,” she agreed as she settled back down in her seat. “Tell me more about these cars.”
Greyson sighed as he took his own seat. “Well, they’re highly sought after by collectors.”
He motioned to the one currently on the block. “Like I said, some of them are concept cars. The cars of the future. They’re loaded with technology.”
Callie turned to look at him, a frown forming between her eyes.
Greyson pointed at another car. “In fact, a lot of them are so advanced, they have bleeding-edge technology in them.”
Greyson turned to Callie as he began to emphasize another point. He saw the look on her face.
“What?” he asked.
Callie looked back at Lenora and Zach.
Zach motioned to a small video feed in the corner of one monitor.
“There’s another one that won’t start,” Zach said.
“I’ve counted five already from this morning and I’ve just started reviewing the video,” Lenora said without looking up.
“These cars have to communicate data from their on-board computer systems, right?” Callie asked Greyson.
“You’re talking about what your office mates told you, Sierra and Michael?” he asked.
“What if someone is trying to use that same piggybacked code on the decryption end?” she asked.
Greyson ran his hands through his hair as he considered it.
“Work through this with me,” he said. “The onboard computer systems have to communicate the data.”
“Right,” she said. “The onboard computer takes the data and puts it into the secure envelope. Everything is okay on that end.”
“The envelope is transmitted wirelessly to the receiving end, which has the decrypt key to open the envelope,” Greyson continued.
“Except, someone managed to tack on some extra code at some point in that process and it executes when the system tries to open the envelope.” Callie stood and began pacing.
“Whenever that extra code runs, it crashes the system.” Greyson tried running through his head again. “Where are you going with this?”
“What if the reason your dogs can’t find anything in the cars is because they can’t smell code?” Callie stopped pacing and put her hands on her hips.
“You think the piggyback decrypt code is what someone wants to sell?” Now Greyson stood and began pacing.
Lenora looked up from her computer and shot Zach a look.
“That makes sense,” Zach said. “But what does it have to do with the cars not starting?”
Lenora nodded her agreement. She was wondering the same thing.
“If I understood my office mates correctly,” Callie said. “The piggyback decrypt code is flawed. It causes the computer t
o think it’s under attack.”
Zach leaned back from his computer. He laced his hands together and rested them on top of his head.
“I’m with you now. That makes total sense. The onboard computer system shuts the car down to protect itself.”
“I get that the data smart cars collect might be valuable,” Greyson said. “How much do you think code like this is worth?”
He turned to Lenora and Zach. Before they could answer, Callie interrupted.
“This isn’t just happening with cars,” Callie said.
They all turned to look at her. Callie raised her hands in the air.
“I didn’t connect the dots before.” She pressed a hand against the top of her head as she thought it through. “My stepmother is the branch manager of a local bank. The ATMs are doing the same thing.”
“They’re crashing?” Greyson looked at Lenora. “See if you can find that happening anywhere else.”
Lenora nodded and began typing on her keyboard.
“What if it’s the same thing? What if the bad code that’s crashing the cars is also crashing the ATMs?” Callie asked. Now she pressed both hands on her head. “What did Leslie say? Something like… it’s actually the host computers that control the ATMs.”
“That makes sense,” Zach muttered.
Callie dropped her hands and shook her head. “I don’t know. It was something like that. The last time I talked to Ariana, she said that the IT people at the bank were thinking hackers.”
“Okay,” Greyson said as he turned back to the monitors. “We all know that the one thing that smart cars and ATMs have in common is…”
“The secure envelope to transmit the data,” Callie finished.
“Maybe the reason the sale hasn’t take place yet is because the programmer doesn’t have the code working correctly yet,” Zach suggested.
“You think that’s what they’re doing?” Greyson nodded to himself as he considered it. “Makes sense. They’re using the auction to sell it because it’s convenient. They can get all of the bidders in once place, make them compete against each other, and drive the price up. It’s possible that they’re even planning a demonstration of the code before the bidding begins. It’s genius.”